Jim Foley was 9 ½ years old when he found out he’d no longer be the youngest in the family.“My mom was 41 when she had the twins,” said Foley.
Twin boys to be exact – expanding the family from four kids to six in their home in Westbrook, Maine. Westbrook was a mill town located next to Portland, Maine’s largest city.
“It was just a great place to grow up,” said Foley.
Juggling six kids, Foley’s mom would often ask for help watching the twins while she made lunch and dinner.
“I loved it. I just always liked kids,” said Foley. “But the whole time I’m growing up, I’m thinking, ‘How in the heck are these two knuckleheads going to even make it in this world?’ I was just kind of worried about them.”
Soon, Foley was off to college at the University of Maine. When he came home to visit, he bunked with his two favorite twins: Pat and Mike.
“Pat’s side of the wall was Charlie’s angels. So it was Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, and Kate Jackson. Then on Mike’s side of the wall was Larry Bird and O.J. Simpson,” said Foley.
At the time, little did Foley know that those posters would inspire his ‘knucklehead’ baby brothers to become the successful businessmen they are today.
“Pat is the personal makeup artist for Jaclyn Smith. He works with her every day, as well as other celebrities,” said Foley. “He’s done the First Lady’s makeup this week when she traveled to Los Angeles. He’s like this world-famous makeup artist. Then my brother Mike was an athlete and got into nutrition about 30 years ago and has really become an expert in nutrition and training. Anybody in southern Maine involved with exercise or fitness is very familiar with Mike. So Mike’s dream was to always open up a gym.”
Foley moved to Memphis in 1989 and has always stayed connected with his siblings. So when Mike came to him in 2019 with an offer to partner in opening a gym in his home state – it was a no-brainer.
“I’d do anything for my younger brothers,” said Foley. “With the gym, I’m more of an adviser on the business side of things. But I have a real belief in exercise, proper diet as exercise and sports has always been a big part of my life. It’s turned into a bit of a passion for me as it provides so many health benefits.”
So when Foley heard about Methodist Le Bonheur leading the Healthier 901 initiative, he jumped on board immediately. The initiative challenges Mid-Southerners to collectively lose a million pounds in three years by living healthier lives.
“I wanted to participate because I thought it was outstanding that a corporation like Methodist would take on such a big challenge and such a difficult challenge,” said Foley. “When Methodist took it on, I thought it was awesome because it’s going to be hard to do because it requires people to change their behaviors.”
Foley is a corporate trainer and travels a lot for his educational sessions. He’s an early riser, so he makes time to exercise in the morning before his workday begins. In the non-stop world we live in now, Foley suggests we take time to plan workouts into our weekly schedules.
“Determine the amount of time you will dedicate each week to exercise while understanding all the things you need to get accomplished each day with your schedule from a time management perspective. You may decide it is three or six times per week, and now put it on your schedule just like any other appointment that you must make during the week. Decide now that you will not move this appointment unless it is an emergency,” said Foley.
Foley’s love for this community shined brightly when asked what he hopes to see at the end of this three-year initiative.
“What I’m hoping to get out of it is that I would love to see a healthier Memphis,” said Foley. “When you have your health, you can have 100 dreams. When you don’t have your health, you just have one dream, right? All you want to do is get healthy.”
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To learn more about joining the Healthier 901 challenge, visit our home page.
